All in all we drove 885 miles across Morocco in two weeks time – seeing everything from the markets in Marrakesh to the dunes of the Sahara Desert. We took 1250 pictures – of which 200 ended up in the blog.
Dave had little trouble driving. For us, we enjoy not being on someone else’s time schedule. And Dave has enough experience in close quarter maneuvering, and in the “there are no lanes all the cars go where they want” style of driving in the cities. Generally, the roads were in good condition. And all the road signs are marked in French in addition to Arabic, so you can read the locations and street names with no trouble. Though whether you choose to rent a car or drive depends greatly on whether you enjoy driving (Dave does) and whether you are comfortable with wandering around a third world country with no interpreter.
Did we feel safe? Yep. As safe as most third world countries in Central America. Yes, you need to pay attention to what’s going on around you and go with your gut if something seems amiss. But with few exceptions the Moroccan’s are a warm and welcoming people.
Speaking English is no problem – people speak it everywhere. If you have a bit of Spanish or French so much the better, but even without it – in the rare case you step into a shop where the proprietor only speaks French, no worries as the next shop keeper will speak English.
We were also pleasantly surprised by how clean a country it is. Rarely did we see the trash along the road side the way you do in places like Mexico. And generally, there were not a lot of bugs, with the exception of the Sahara where the flies drove us nuts.
We were surprised as to the number of tourist women not wearing scarves. We had been told that Melissa should don one – particularly outside the main cities. But the truth is that you don’t have to. Its completely your choice. We did find that when Melissa did wear the scarf that we tended to get hassled a bit less by the pressure of shopkeepers trying to get us into their shops and by the “helpful” scam artists in the souks that will try to help you from getting lost.
We had our challenges, but for sure we would go back. The only question is whether we would choose a new adventure – Thailand, an African Safari, or New Zealand before making our way back to Morocco.